White/Black Cross on P-51 Portside Fuselage

[czech693]

I was curious about this as the BOX OD paint scheme had it in black and I knew it should be white (I changed it to white and also change the black US insignia to dark insignia blue).  Many pictures of P-51B's and D's show it, but many do not.  I found this article by a former crew chief with the 357th FG.  It was to mark which aircraft had the 38 gallon fuselage tank added.  I guess this mod became standard and so they deleted the cross as all P-51's eventually had the fueselage tank.

 

https://toflyandfight.com/a-tale-of-two-p-51s-named-joan/

[BornToBattle]

Very interesting story. I ended up reading the entire thing! Thanks for sharing this.